Xin Wen

Title
Assistant Professor of East Asian Studies and History; Johanna and Alfred Hurley *61 P76 P82 P86 University Preceptor
Office Phone
Office
237 Frist Campus Center
Bio/Description

Xin Wen (Ch. 文欣) is a historian of medieval China and Inner Asia. His work goes beyond the dynastic units of Tang (618-907) and Song (960-1279) and situates “China” in the connected world of Eurasia.

His current book project examines the ways people traveled between Northwestern China and Central Asia in the ninth and tenth centuries. Utilizing multi-lingual manuscripts from Dunhuang as well as transmitted Chinese texts, this book shows a world in which the movements of people were motivated primarily by the pursuit of social prestige rather than the interest in commercial profit. His research interests in medieval China also include manuscript culture, urban history, and digital humanities.

  • B.A. from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC)
  • M.A. in Pre-modern Chinese History, Peking University
  • Ph.D. in Inner Asian and Altaic Studies, Harvard University (2017)
Area of Interest
(In alphabetical order)
Book History
Cultural History
Digital History
Economic History
Global
Historiography
Political History
Race & Ethnicity
Social History
Urban History
Home Department & Other Affiliations
East Asian Studies
History
Period
Late Antiquity
6th through 14th Centuries
Region
Asia